Can I really claim to be "Christian"?

This thing called Christianity, what's it about?

For the first several years, maybe decades, of people walking in the way of Jesus the movement lacked a definitive name.  We read in the book of Acts that "the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." (Acts 11:26)  What compelled the neighbors of these "Christians" to give them that name?  The name stuck, maybe too well.  Today, all kinds of people claim to be "Christians."  "Christianity" is used to describe movements so broad and disparate that I sometimes wonder whether the word has any real meaning.  

• I admit my prejudice in the matter.  I'm convinced that Christianity is a religion, movement, philosophy of life, way of life--call it what you will--that is described by, and defined by the Book, the Bible.  When I speak of the Bible I am talking about those 66 books that form the common core that Christians regard as their holy book.  Does Christianity simply mean "Bible-anity"?
• Others would say that Christianity is a set of rituals, a liturgy.  We get together and do these rites that define who we are.  So, does having been baptized, regularly taking communion, and doing the Christian thing, make one a Christian?
• Still others would see Christianity as a way of thinking.  Christianity is a philosophy of life.  It is different than materialism, or secularism, or Buddhism or Islam.  Some folk who don't even believe in the Jesus of the Bible will consider themselves "Christian" in this sense. Should we consider ourselves to be "Christian-ists"?

All of these have an element of truth to them.  (I've already admitted my fondness for the first.)  I was reminded this week, though, as I began a new round of a Bible study on the Life of Christ, that preeminently Christianity is about a person--the person of Christ.  

• The Bible points us to Christ, and leads us into a relationship with Him
• If rituals have value--and not all do not--it is as they point to Christ.  In particular the two ordinances that Christ left us, baptism and the Lord's supper, point us to Him and the need that we have to be found in Him.
• It is essential that all of our life--what we say, what we do, even the very way we think be shaped by our relationship with Him.

 It was said about some of the early followers of the Lord, that they were recognized " as having been with Jesus."  (Acts 4:13)   I think that the folk in Antioch, perhaps intending it as an insult, called those followers of Jesus "Christians" because their lives were so marked by Christ.

I am praying that this will be the mark of my Christianity,Christ-like-ness.

In that sense of Christianity:

I could be a scholar of the Book and not be Christian.

I can do certain rituals--Christian though they may be--and not be Christian.

I can subscribe to a philosophy, even be able to articulate it accurately and not be Christian.

Unless: 

In the fullest sense, I believe in Christ,  

I can realistically claim that He is at the core of who I am,

My life is increasingly marked by a likeness to Christ,

And I am living to, and in such a way so as to, make Christ known,

Can I really claim to be Christian?

 

It's STTA.